Just watched Nine Legends, blinding film.
Sadness notwithstanding, Raw was pretty good. Ziggler/Owens and Ryback/Bray were great matches. The Divas matches were decent. The tables match was a total barnburner and the crowd was completely into it.
I don’t know how much of Bryan’s retirement speech they aired on TV, because it didn’t wrap up until almost 40 minutes overtime, but many a manly tear was shed. He says that the tests he took two weeks ago revealed that his brain was in a much worse state than he thought it was and that that was the deciding factor for him. He thanked the audience for supporting him and for hijacking Raw back in 2013, and talked about how wrestling has made it possible for him to meet great people like WIlliam Regal, Kane (who he called the smartest person he knows), Connor the Crusher, and his wife. In the end, the entire roster (including Vince) came out on the ramp and did the yes salute as he shook hands with the crowd and made his curtain call.
I don’t know if my face got on TV much, but from the peeks I sneaked at the Titantron, my Glo-Worm got a good amount of airtime. Just look around the area of the left turnbuckle whenever they’re on the hard cam. 
Anyone else willing to bet that Daniel Bryan gets named to the Hall of Fame? If not this year, certainly next year.
I saw the Glo-Wurm a ton during the beginning of the broadcast, but not so much during the latter half. Then again, I might have gotten Wurm-blind off of it, but I still definitely saw you.
We got the whole speech last night. It was strange to me that WWE still booked a full 3 hour show when they had to have known that DBs speech would have gone long, but good for them and USA for not pulling it. The live broadcast ended a little after Brie came out and when DB left the ring to hug his mom, then it went over to the Network…but I didn’t watch.
I haven’t watched DBD’s farewell speech yet. Not sure I want to. I take enough antidepression meds as it is and it might send me into a downward spiral. DBD was always a joy to watch. He was truly gifted not only as an athlete but with a magnetic personality as well. His partnership with Kane in Team Hell No was one of my favorite angles in wrestling ever.
It did seem like everybody stepped up their game tonight and put a little more oomph in their moves than usual. Dean Ambrose taunting Brrrrock had me in stitches. I guess Sin Cara won’t be kicked to the curb now that the Dudleyz have turned heel, as they need more face teams.
Missed it due to a my regular alternate-Mondays gaming. Will watch what I can on the network later.
Wouldn’t worry too much about Face teams. I expect Los Matadores to be released (as they haven’t been used in a while, only like once(?) in the last three months. If they call up Enzo & Cass (rumored), there’s a big face team right there, and American Alpha would be the other one I’d say to give a shot at the big time. Both of those teams are money.
The dude’s a sure thing. The ONLY question is who gives the induction speech.
Brie probably. I don’t see why not
Kane.
New father-in-law John Laurenitis.
William Regal would also be a good choice - ISTR reading somewhere that he described helping train Bryan as the greatest accomplishment of his career.
Seems a good bet, or Regal.
For that matter, it was also Regal who suggested “Daniel Bryan” as a ring name when Bryan was having trouble coming up with a new name. He almost wound up being called “Lloyd Boner”.
For all the times Vince gets called a “genius” (which I notice is almost always by people dependent on him for a paycheck), he really is a dumbass who leaves tons of money on the table (and sometimes shits on it, then sets fire to it) with this kind of underpants-on-head stupidity.
Just got out of the Smackdown taping in Portland about an hour ago. Pretty solid show. The AJ Styles vs. Jericho rematch was the main event and they did a great job building to it over the course of the show. It was an awesome match and the crowd was really into it - I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s worth watching.
Enzo and Big Cass worked a dark match at the beginning of the show, where they beat a jobber tag team from the local indy promotion. It’s been rumored that they’re getting called up soon, and if this was their tryout match, it definitely proved they’re ready - the crowd went nuts the second their music hit, and I was far from the only person reciting Enzo’s monologue along with him.
I believe Enzo and Cass have been doing dark matches for a good while now, but glad to see the crowd is into them. I would love to see their titantron on a big screen, I love that video.
If you haven’t seen it, I recommend watching DBs ESPN interview, he explains his health a bit more and is personable as always. It’s on YouTube and isn’t too terribly hard to find.
Enzo and Cass would be a crazy pairing with New Day. There will be dance-offs for sure.
Well, I guess we know now…
If you saw Vince shove someone at the very end of Raw, that was Titus O’Neill, who had ‘playfully but physically grabbed Vince’. Vince shoved him away.
Titus has now been suspended for 90 days for ‘Unprofessional Conduct’.
I’d bet money that if that had been one of Vince’s favorites, nothing would have happened. Instead it’s a man Vince has steadfastly refused to push in any meaningful manner, despite that man having the kind of physique that Vince likes to push.
That would explain why Darren Young and Mark Henry were suddenly a tag team at last night’s tapings.
That’s honestly a little weird. I have listened to a lot of interviews of retired guys in the past few years and Vince being “very physical” with his employees is a pretty common mention by a lot of these guys. To the point that he apparently would all but demand some guys amateur wrestle him from time to time (I don’t think this is some weird latent homoeroticism, I just think Vince is weird and immature in a lot of ways.) I guess the difference is when it’s Vince roughhousing it’s “on his terms” and maybe because Titus did this in front of a live audience Vince viewed it as problematic in relation to the solemn nature of the event and etc.